Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device and a technology related to the communication device.
Description of the Background Art
In one technology, a pairing process (an associating process to previously register communication devices in association with each other) is performed between communication devices (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-106371).
For example, in a wireless connection with the Bluetooth (registered trade mark) standard, an associating process (pairing process) is performed to previously register communication partners in association with each other (in advance to normal communication). Note that if a pairing process is performed at the first communication or the like, a pairing process is basically not necessary in the following communication (the communication at the second time or after or other communications).
In one OS (for example, iOS, which is an operating system of Apple Inc.), a pairing function related to the wireless connection using the Bluetooth (registered trade mark) system is provided as a part of the functions of the OS (operating system). This pairing process itself is not performed by an application program (hereinafter, simply referred to as an application, too) but is performed by the OS (in more detail, by the OS called in response to a communication request from the application).
However, the application which has requested the OS to issue the communication request cannot obtain, directly from the OS, information about whether the pairing process has been performed in the communication of this time (the communication in response to the communication request). That is, it is difficult for the application to know the presence or absence of the pairing process.
More specifically, in the case where normal communication is possible through the wireless connection using the Bluetooth system, it is impossible for the application to distinguish that the normal communication could be started due to the pairing process performed immediately before the normal communication from that the normal communication could be communication due to the pairing process already performed long before the normal communication. In short, the application cannot distinguish that the short-range wireless communication connection is being performed immediately after the “first pairing process” from that the short-range wireless communication connection is being performed after the “pairing process completed long before”.
Because of the above issue, it is difficult for the application to reflect the presence or absence of execution of the pairing process on the various succeeding processes.
Such a problem can occur not only to the communication connection using the Bluetooth but also to the communication connection using other methods.